Tuesday, 2 October 2012

Forthcoming books to look forward to from Atlantic and Corvus books

They call him Herod – a
killer of unimaginable cruelty, with an unthinkable desire London is in the grip of a
barbaric serial killer. Four women have been abducted in quick succession, their
bodies mutilated and dumped. When a fifth woman is taken from her home, DCI
David Rosen knows that time is running out... Then Rosen gets a mysterious
phone call from Father Sebastian Flint, an enigmatic priest who seems to know
rather too much about the abductions.But it isn’t until Rosen discovers the existence of an ancient text –
said to be the devil’s answer to the bible –that the true horror of Herod’s plan
begins to unfold.The Sixth Soul is the debut novel by Mark Roberts and is due to be
published in February 2013.

Blessed Are Those Who Thirst is by Anne Holt and is due
to be published in April 2013. In Oslo,
crime scenes are being found covered with blood, but there is no victim. Only
an odd series of numbers is left behind. When a girl is brutally raped in her
apartment, Hanne Wilhelmsen quickly notices strange similarities with the
blood-stained crime scenes. But the girl’s father has started an independent
hunt for the rapist... Also by Anne Holt and due to be published in June is Death of the Demon. The cheerful façade of the
Spring Sunshine Children’s home hides a brutal regime. When the manager is found
dead in her office, Hanne Wilhelmsen is called in to investigate.

Welcome
to fifth-century Britain: the Romans have left, the Saxons have invaded, the
towns are decaying and the countryside is dangerous. Malgwyn ap Cuneglas, an embittered ex-soldier
who lost a limb in the Saxon wars, has become the trusted counsellor to Arthur,
High King of all Britannia. So when a monk dies in horrific circumstances in
Glastonbury Abbey, the Abbot calls for Malgwyn to investigate. His search for the truth will draw him into an
intricate web of religious, economic and political
deceit – and a conspiracy that could endanger everything Arthur has fought for.
The Divine Sacrifice is by Anthony Hays and is due to be published in April 2013

Traitor’s Field
is the second book in the series by Robert Wilton (the winner of the inaugural
Goldsboro Crown Award for debut historical novel) to feature John Thurloe. It is due to be published in May 2013. As
England tears itself apart, two spymasters fight for its future: It is 1648 and
Britain is at war with itself. The Royalists are defeated but Parliament is in
turmoil, its power weakened by internal discord. Royalism’s last hope is Sir Mortimer Shay, a
ruthless veteran of decades of intrigue who must rebuild a credible threat to
Cromwell’s rule, whatever the cost. John
Thurloe is a young official in Cromwell’s service. Confronted by the extent of
the Royalists’ secret intelligence network, he will have to fight the true
power reaching into every corner of society: the Comptrollerate-General for
Scrutiny and Survey.

False Gods of Rome is the third novel in the Vespasian series by Robert Fabbri. Sickened
by Tiberius’s insane debauchery, Vespasian places his faith in the new Emperor,
Caligula. Instead, he watches Rome’s shining star deteriorate into a
blood-crazed, incestuous, all-powerful madman. Lavish building projects,
endless games, public displays of his
relationship with his sister and a terrified senate are nothing to
Caligula’s most ambitious plan: to bridge the bay of Neapolis and ride over it
wearing Alexander’s breastplate. And it falls to Vespasian to travel to
Alexandria and steal it. False Gods of
Rome is due to be published in January 2013.

A Darkness Descending is by Christobel Kent and is due to be published in
May 2013. Silvano Rosselli, the gaunt, charismatic
leader of a Florentine political movement, collapses at a rally. His longtime
partner Flavia has disappeared, leaving him literally holding their new baby,
at least until Rosselli’s formidable mother takes charge. Meanwhile, Sandro
Cellini has been reduced to looking into a possibly fraudulent insurance claim.
Soon he is drawn into the mystery surrounding Rosselli, and when Flavia’s fate
is revealed, events take a terrifying turn.

No Way Back
is by Matthew Klein and is due to be published in March 2013. Jimmy Thane has always taken the
wrong path. Now he has one last chance to save both his career and his marriage
– he has seven weeks to turn round a failing company. But when
the police start asking questions about the disappearance of the former CEO,
Jimmy begins to wonder what he’s got himself into.Then he discovers surveillance equipment in
his neighbour’s house. And he begins to notice that his wife isn’t just tired,
she’s terrified. Jimmy no longer feels like he’s living the dream – instead he’s
plunged into the worst kind of nightmare.

Brodie
is approached by the Jewish community in Glasgow to solve a series of thefts.
But when the thief is knifed by a householder, who is then also murdered,
Brodie’s easy case becomes a terrifying, violent mess. When Brodie investigates
further, he discovers that the dead man wasn’t a brutalized Jew, but a sadistic
camp guard. What starts as a small case soon escalates into a relentless
personal quest for the truth. And when it begins to seem that the guards are protecting
someone high up in the old Nazi organization, Brodie faces the biggest moral
dilemma of his career. Pilgrim Soul is by Gordon Ferris and is
due to be published in April 2013.

Sherlock
Holmes meets Flashman in the first instalment of Adam Carver’s adventures, a wonderfully
exuberant piece of Victoriana. It is
1870. When amateur archaeologist Adam Carver and his loyal but obdurate
retainer Quint are visited by an attractive young woman, they are pitched headlong
into an elaborate mystery which comes to centre on the existence (or not) of a
lost text in Ancient Greek, one that may reveal the whereabouts of the treasure
hoard of Philip II of Macedonia. With the scene shifting from the roughest and
most genteel parts of the teeming metropolis to the fastness of a Greece gripped
by political unrest, Carver and Quint soon
realize that nothing is quite what it seems.Carver’s Quest is by Nick
Rennison and is due to be published in June 2013.